Sola
Soho, London
Bang in the heart of the Soho action, amid the jostle of Dean Street, Victor Garvey's Sola (recently refurbished and extended) represents a highly personal take on contemporary North American food, but with a difference. While all the innovation and conceptual dash of modern technique is on show, there is a firm focus on delivering high-impact dishes in an accessible framework – not least for value. It is all too easy to dazzle when price is no object, but look at the £59 set lunch menu here, and then ask yourself: how does he do it? From the parade of astonishing canapés – including crisped-up belly of suckling pig topped with a huge cloud of jasmine foam, little rolls of pickled kohlrabi and apple cream – to the take-home pastiches of American candy bars, the intensity level never wavers. Ingredients are top-drawer throughout, as is the case with two large pieces of bluefin akami cut into neat, rectangular lozenges alongside a cylindrical sesame-dotted tuile made from soybean flour, stuffed to bursting with gorgeously fatty minced otoro. Dazzling accompaniments include a quenelle of super-light avocado mousse, cubes of ponzu jelly, burnt and raw spring onions, pickled shimeji mushrooms, edamame and a ponzu sauce with tapioca pearls. How can a main course top that? And yet... here comes pink-roasted squab breast with a gratin of artichoke and Emmental, crisp-fried artichoke, crisped pigeon skin and a parfait of foie gras encased in squid-ink gel, the whole dish held together by a gloriously savoury black-olive praline. Dessert might be as refreshingly light as Pink Lady apple with Calvados sorbet and sumac pastry, or as richly luscious as poached pear in caramel sauce with an almond financier and truffle ice cream. Only the wine offering, which is predominantly Californian, seems to limit the operation needlessly, offsetting the powerful appeal that the menu pricing exerts – a result of the transatlantic exchange rate. Bottles start at £55, glasses at £16.
Dining Information:
Dog friendly, Credit card required
020 3730 7883
